Understanding Play Therapy Interventions with Children

Online - 27 & 28 August 2025, 9am - 12.30pm

Delivered over 2 Sessions with Poornima Ranchhod

Please Note: Spaces are limited. Contact us today to make a pencil booking if you are seeking funding approval.

Book Training Now - 27 & 28 August 2025

Understanding Play Therapy Interventions with children.

Play Therapy is a developmentally appropriate, evidence-based modality that uses play as a medium for children to express and process their emotions and experiences. A growing body of evidence supports its effectiveness in addressing children's concerns.

Join our workshop and learn practical interventions to support children's emotional growth, resilience, and healing. This interactive session will equip you with techniques you can apply immediately to build stronger connections, help children to express emotions safely, and create playful pathways to healing.

Children learn to make sense of their world through a secure co-regulating relationship with their primary caregivers and other significant adults in their lives. Play is a language for children to express and understand themselves, connect with others and their environment. This workshop focuses on understanding and working with emotional regulation to help children and youth cope with and navigate difficult life experiences.

This workshop will introduce attendees to the concept of play therapy. It provides a variety of tools, including directive and non-directive interventions, to use with clients across a wide age range. The experiential activities allow attendees to explore and understand how to apply strategies to support children, youth, and their whānau on their path to healing.

We will utilise short videos and hands-on and experiential practices throughout the presentation.

Throughout the presentation we will utilise short videos, hands-on and experiential practices.

This workshop will cover:

Play therapy to promote recovery
Attachment and trauma theory
Adverse Childhood Experiences
Principles of play therapy
Play and creative interventions for emotional awareness and regulation
Using directive and non-directive play therapy

Learning Objectives:

Gain an understanding of play therapy and its theoretical underpinnings
Understand the therapeutic power of play and its role in emotional development
Build strong relationships using play-based approaches.
Confidently applying a range of play therapy interventions tailored to different emotional and developmental needs
Describe the benefits of play therapy
Introduce directive and non-directive play therapy tools and interventions
Adapt play interventions for trauma-informed practice
Attain strategies and skills to promote healing and resiliency.

Please note: This workshop does not certify participants as Play Therapists. It aims to provide practical tools to support professionals who work with children, youth, parents, and whānau.

Who Should Attend

This is an introductory-level workshop suitable for:

Educational professionals (teachers, principals, RTLB, SENCOS, practice leaders, TA's, social workers in schools and educational psychologists and school counsellors
Healthcare and mental health professionals, including occupational therapists, speech and language therapists, counsellors, social workers, psychologists, play therapists and art therapists
Professionals seeking to gain increased knowledge and skills in helping children and youth. It is for anyone who works with supporting children, young people and whānau.

NOTE - If your organisation is interested in having Poornima present face-face to between 15 - 40 members of your team, please contact Faye Johnson for more information. If you do not have sufficient numbers within your team, we recommend you consider opening the training up either to other Branch’s of your organisation or other region-based community agencies you work with. We have worked with many organisations this has worked well for - contact us for further information.

Price & Registration process

Price: $320.00 per person, including GST, for both sessions.

Payment in full is required before commencement of the training.

Online payment is by Debit or Credit Card: VISA, Mastercard or American Express only and there are 3 easy steps to complete the online booking process.

Our registration platform is hosted by Lil Regie, our NZ based booking agent. Upon completing your registration by hitting the blue 'Confirm Booking' button, you will receive an automated email from Lil Regie confirming the booking and amount paid by credit card. This will appear on your statement as from LIL REGIE LTD WELLINGTON.
A GST Tax Invoice showing your payment in full will also be emailed to you.

If you have any issues or questions about your booking, please contact Faye Johnson.

Can't pay online and require an invoice?

We work hard to ensure that all workshops are cost effective by automating our systems. If your organisation requires an invoice (rather than paying by debit or credit card) there will be a $25.00 inc GST surcharge for this, and you will need to supply:

The full organisation name and postal address required to appear on the invoice.
The contact name and email of the person(s) responsible for authorising this expense and approving payment.
Any purchase order references required on vendor invoices.

Please email this information to Brian - accounts@grow.co.nz and faye@grow.co.nz , and along with the Invoice we will also send you a special booking link which will come up as free of charge. Through this link you will need to complete your registration.

PLEASE NOTE:

Payment in full is required before commencement of the training.
If you require an Invoice and you are seeking funding approval, please include this surcharge in the price you have on your application.

Our workshops fill quickly so if you would like to reserve a place, please contact faye@grow.co.nz

What happens if you have to cancel?

We know that sometimes your plans can change for many different reasons. Should you be unable to attend, a substitute delegate is welcome to attend at no extra cost. If a substitute delegate is not available and you need to cancel your registration, please be aware of the following:

Up to 7 days prior to the event you will be provided a refund of your registration cost, less a $20.00 inc GST per attendee service charge.

If you cancel within 7 days of the event, you are not eligible to receive a refund. Please note: should your registration not be paid by the time of the event, you are still liable to make the payment.

Unpaid accounts may be passed over to our debt collection agency and additional costs may be incurred.

All cancellations must be received in writing (email).

Training is cancellable by GROW with 7 days’ notice if a minimum number of attendees is not met and full refunds will be provided.

Please note: GROW Ltd reserves the right to make any amendments that we may deem to be in the best interest of the forum – it is however very unlikely and we will notify you as soon as possible should this occur.

For more information see our full Terms of Trade.

Book Training Now

Private face-face and online workshops also available.
Contact us for more information.

*Workshop content can be customised to meet your specific needs

The following peak bodies and organisations recognise that the training we offer is of a high quality, evidence based and relevant for their members CPD.

About the Presenter:

Poornima Ranchhod, Play Therapist

Poornima Ranchhod is a qualified and experienced Play Therapist. She is the Founder of Play Sense and is currently working in private practice as well as a school-based play therapist. Poornima works as a contractor with organisations and services such as Oranga Tamariki, Ministry of Education and High Complex Needs Services. Over her career, she has spent many years working with children, young people with complex psychological issues (e.g. depression, anxiety, attachment disorders, family problems) and difficult life experiences (e.g. family stress, divorce, bereavement, family and sexual violence).

Poornima is trained in child development, attachment (the bonding process) and using and understanding play as a child’s natural form of expression and communication. Her specialities include working with neurodiverse children. In the UK she has worked and offered therapy for various intellectual disability services, such as the NHS (National Health Service). Along with play therapy, Poornima also offers LEGO Therapy - Brick Programme. Poornima is also a School Board member.

Poornima holds a BSC (Hons) in Psychology and a Postgraduate Diploma in Play Therapy by the British Association of Play Therapy (BAPT). She is a graduate member of the British Psychological Society, an international member of the British Association of Play Therapy and an affiliate member of the New Zealand Association of Child and Adolescent Psychotherapists.

ZOOM Date & Details

2 sessions - Wed, 27 & Thurs, 28 August 2025 - 9 am - 12.30 pm

These workshops will be delivered via ZOOM and you will be sent the login in details once you have registered, and emailed resources prior to the training. There will be group discussions and participants are encouraged to ask questions.

This is an interactive workshop with breakout room activities and we therefore ask all participants to have their own computer / laptop with a working camera and mic as this makes interaction with the breakout room activities and discussions easier and enhances the learning for all.

NOTE: This training will not be recorded.